Google's New Nexus 7 Review - Is It Better Than Its Predecessor?

As scheduled, Google has unveiled the new Nexus 7, the sequel of the much appreciated $199 7-inch tablet of 2012. As soon as the event was over, fans began to question how the new one is better than its predecessor and whether the higher price tag of $230 justified. Let’s find out. Since they have not given it a new name (e.g. Nexus 7 II etc) we shall address it as the 2013 Nexus 7 in this article.

Taking a look at the back first, Google has now provided it with a a matte, soft-touch black plastic which gives it a more premium feel as compared to the leathery back of old one. The new version will ship with Android Jelly Bean 4.3 and old Nexus 7 users will have to wait with their 4.2.2 until an upgrade arrives. While the 2012 Nexus 7 had 1,280 x 800 resolution display with 216 PPI, the 2013 version comes with a 7.02 inch display with 1080p (1920x1200 pixels) resolution packing 323 pixels per inch which is protected by scratch resistant Corning glass. The higher pixels will result in greater amount of detail in your videos and games and Google also assures that not only the Corning protection is able to resist scratches as before it will now also protect it from smudges.

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The old Nexus 7 had managed to gain applauds thanks to its huge processing power and GPU so the new Nexus 7 continues the trend but has ditched NVIDIA and went for a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core CPU coupled with 2 GB of RAM and an Adreno 320 GPU operating at 400MHz. An increase of 0.3 GHz of CPU is just marginal, the graphics performance is now more improved and the addition of an extra gigabyte of RAM will make multi-tasking a breeze and not to mention a lag free gaming experience. Photography is not high on our priorities while buying a tablet but since its arch nemesis as put a 5 MP camera on its mini-tablet (iPad Mini) so Google has stuck a camera on the rear with the same resolution and has kept its 1.2MP front snapper. Since Google has always maintained a high standard of audio quality they have roped in Fraunhofer to bring surround sound to the stereo speakers.

The huge change comes in terms of the connectivity options, The 2013 Nexus 7 now comes with much requested HDMI connectivity with the help of a SlimPort and to keep up with the times LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, dual band Wi-Fi and wireless charging. The number of sensors does remain the same though. Now my only concern, the battery, while the previous version had a 4,325mAh battery this one has a 3,950mAh one, perhaps to make the tablet lighter by about 40 grams and slimmer by 2mm. And finally the price, while the old model managed to make a mark on the market share thanks to its $199 price tag for the base 8GB (now 16 GB) model this one will cost you 31 dollars more. But is you start taking all the tech specs into account you shall notice that it’s worth the price. But I would have loved if ASUS had just managed to cram in a microSD card slot for memory expansion.

The Wi-Fi only models of the 2013 Nexus 7 will cost $230 for 16GB and $270 for 32GB and for the cellular 32 GB model you have to shell out $350 and shall be available in the US starting from July 30 and will be arriving in other countries soon.

Comments

If you love Android, I think it is safe to say that this would be the best-performing 7-inch tablet around for a while.

With all the new features that Android 4.3 provides, including wireless charging, full-HD screen and a rear camera, the tech specs are cool, but they aren't enough to get one truly excited. What are your opinions, CEans?